Pumpkin Cream Cheese Brownies

What You Need:

For the Brownies:

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup cocoa

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

For the Cheesecake Swirl:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

What You Do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and four a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Beat together melted butter, sugar, pumpkin, eggs and vanilla together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix together until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.

2. To make the cheesecake filling, beat together cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl. Reserve about 2/3 of a cup of this mixture. This will be the white cheesecake swirl layer. Mix the pumpkin into the remaining cheesecake mixture. You will have to colors of cheesecake batter. Starting with the white batter, spoon the mixture onto the brownie batter in thin rows. Then do the same with the pumpkin cheesecake batter. Don’t worry if they touch or its not perfect. It’s art. Run a butter knife through the batter in a grid pattern to get the swirled look. Don’t over do it.

3. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before slicing. Makes 24 brownies.